the morning began with bodo's, a charlottesville tradition. it is unquestionably an institution in the city. if you so much as mention the name to a local, they will start drooling and telling you how amazing they believe it to be. it never fails, try it sometime. the bagels are certainly delicious and at $0.70 apiece, a bargain. after we'd had our fill of lox and cream cheese we continued on to another, slightly older charlottesville institution, monticello.
monticello is, of course, the home of thomas jefferson, which all good virginians will recall from their fourth grade SOLs and multiple field trips. after you fork over 20 precious dollars you're free to explore the cafe, gift shop (ooh, a thomas jefferson stuffed otter..) and introductory video. we bypassed this and went straight to the bus that takes you up the hill to the grounds. once there we explored the herb gardens, which, come to think of it, may have been my favorite part. they had planted fall gourds, little chili peppers, and some lovely flowers all overlooking some of tom's vineyards and the mountains in the distance. my only complaint was that some of the colors had faded from the trees. but i suppose that's beyond their control.
once it was time for our tour we queued up (do you queue up? or in? or just queue?) and dutifully followed our tour guide into the front door. the entrance hall is perhaps not what you'd expect, covered with native american weaponry, hunting trophies, and maps of africa. the rest of the house is about as you would expect, libraries, well-appointed rooms, and lots of little inventions and gadgetry.
once we left the house we were able to walk around the spacious backyard with more gardens and a lovely view of charlotesville. there's even a clearing where you can just barely see jefferson's precious rotunda through the trees. the house itself isn't bad to look at, either. i guess that unesco knows what they're talking about.from here we made our way through the gardens and down the trail where we made a brief stop at jefferson's grave, a smaller take on the washington monument, it would seem.
from here we continued down the road where we soon came to jefferson's vineayards, conveniently located near his house. while there was a nice view and their white wines were some of the best i've ever had, we continued on in search of a different winery farther down the road. on the way we passed an apple orchard and the historic michie tavern (another time) before we arrived at our destination. blenheim vineyards is owned by another famous charlottesvillian, dave matthews. in fact it was his sister-in-law who gave us our wine tasting. but first, the building itself is a really nice wooden a-frame whose spacious windows allow for gorgeous views, not only of the vineyards but of the wine barrels on the floor below.
our tasting was lovely and followed by a snack of goat cheese and rosemary crackers on the deck where we enjoyed the november sun. once we felt we had sufficiently relaxed it was time to go. but not before a visit to the vineyards themselves. with the rolling hills and fall leaves they were quite beautiful.
the fall weather, the scenery and the company made it a wonderful day. what can i say, the city won me over, popped collars aside.
